The Transfer Window is a regular round-up of recent legal moves in the UK and abroad. Please send all announcements to [email protected].

DLA Piper has added a partner to its German finance and projects practice with the hire of Linklaters managing associate Wolfram Distler.

Distler, who will join DLA's Frankfurt base as of 1 September, has been at Linklaters since 2003, primarily in Frankfurt as well as two spells in the magic circle firm's London office.

In 2006 he worked in the City banking team, while in 2009 was based in Linklaters' projects team in the capital. His specialities are project and acquisition financing, company financing and real estate financing.

DLA has also recently added to its Hong Kong office with the hire of former Withers partner Todd Martin Beutler. Beutler, who is joining DLA as a partner, has more than 15 years of experience with firms in Hong Kong, Singapore and the US, and advises clients on tax controversy matters and fiduciary litigation.

Plexus Law has recruited former Pinsent Masons partner Fiona Heyes for its growing professional indemnity team. Heyes, who spent 20 years at Pinsents, making partner in 1993, joined the specialist defendant insurance litigation firm earlier this summer, bringing the number of partners within the team to 13.

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) finance Partner Andrei Baev has been appointed as the UK chairman of TheCityUK public private partnerships and infrastructure stream. Baev, whose chairmanship will begin from 15 August, joined BLP's Russian office, Goltsblat BLP, in December 2011 from Allen & Overy.

The new role is part of TheCityUK's joint liaison group with the Moscow International Financial Centre Initiative (MIFC , an initiative run in conjunction with TheCityUK's Russia, CIS & Mongolia market advisory group, which are aiming to ensure active involvement from practitioners from both Russia and the UK as Moscow develops into an international finance centre.

Irwin Mitchell has strengthened its Sheffield base with the hire of Matt Ainsworth from DLA Piper. Ainsworth, who was a legal director at DLA, joins Irwin Mitchell not long after the firm's hire of banking and asset-based lending partners Andrew Watson and Jon Bew from Squire Sanders.

Clifford Chance (CC) has appointed Eiichi Kanda as the magic circle firm's new Tokyo head. Kanda joined CC as a capital markets partner in 2001, with real estate, investment, financing and asset management among his areas of expertise.

Current Tokyo managing partner Peter Kilner, who was in charge of the office for four years, will relocate to Hong Kong. Kilner will split his time between the regions as senior support to both cities' banking and finance practices.

US firm Kaye Scholer has recruited Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Annette Bodeker as head of corporate in the firm's Frankfurt office. Bodeker, whose clients include Citigroup Global Markets, Qioptiq Group, Bosch and Levi Strauss, will join Kaye Scholer on 1 September.

Los Angeles firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton has added a corporate partner to its Beijing office with the hire of Simon Cheong from Beijing's Zhong Lun Law Firm.

Cheong, who focuses on M&A and financing deals, joined Zhong Lun as of counsel in 2008 and became partner in 2009. He is also a former associate in the Hong Kong offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Baker & McKenzie.

Baker & McKenzie has added a Myanmar-qualified senior counsel to its Bangkok office. Saw Yu Win is joining Bakers from Yangon-based Myanmar Thanlwin Legal Services, an affiliate firm of Southeast Asian regional law firm DFDL.

The hire makes Bakers the first international firm to establish a Myanmar law capability. The firm's Thailand managing partner, Chirachai Okanurak, says the firm would like to open an office in Myanmar within a year or so, depending on the political situation.

Norton Rose has bulked up its Canada practice with maritime, Arctic law and energy counsel Wylie Spicer, the former managing partner of Canada's McInnes Cooper in Halifax. He is joining Norton Rose's Calgary office as a member of the firm's transport and energy practice and as the first addition to the firm's recently-launched Canadian North and Arctic team.